Book of Common Prayer

Babylon’s plagues

18 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven with great authority; the earth was lit up with his glory. ² He shouted out in a strong voice, and this is what he said: “Babylon the great has fallen! She has fallen! She has become a place for demons to live, a refuge for every unclean spirit, a refuge for every unclean bird, a refuge for every unclean, hateful monster. ³ All the nations drank from the wine of the wrath of her fornication; the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the traders of the earth became rich from the power of her luxury.”

⁴ Then I heard another voice from heaven, and this is what it said: “Come out of her, my people, so that you don’t become embroiled in her sins, and so that you don’t receive any of her plagues. ⁵ Her sins are piled up to the sky, and God has remembered her wickedness. ⁶ Pay her back as she has paid others; give her double again for all her deeds. Mix her a double dose in her own cup—the cup in which she mixed her poisons. ⁷ She made herself glorious and lived in luxury; balance that by giving her torture and sorrow! She said in her heart, ‘I’m the queen! I’m on the throne! I’m not a widow! I’m never going to be a mourner!’ ⁸ Therefore her plagues will come in a single day, death, mourning and famine, and she will be burned with fire, because God the Lord, her judge, is strong.”

Discussions of clean and unclean

15 At that time some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus. They had a question for him.

² “Why,” they said, “do your disciples go against the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands when they eat their food!”

³ “Why,” Jesus replied, “do you go against the command of God because of your tradition? ⁴ What God said was ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘If anyone speaks evil of father or mother, they must certainly die.’ ⁵ But you say, ‘If anyone says to father or mother, “What you might have gained from me is given to God,” ⁶ they don’t need to honor their father anymore.’ As a result, you make God’s word null and void because of your tradition.

⁷ “You play-actors! Isaiah had the right words for you in his prophecy:

The parable of clean and unclean

¹⁰ Then Jesus called the crowd, and said to them, “Listen and understand. ¹¹ What makes someone unclean isn’t what goes into the mouth. It’s what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.”

¹² Then the disciples came to Jesus.

“Do you know,” they said, “that the Pharisees were horrified when they heard what you said?”

¹³ “Every plant that my heavenly father hasn’t planted,” replied Jesus, “will be plucked up by the roots. ¹⁴ Let them be. They are blind guides. But if one blind person guides another, both of them will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵ Peter spoke up. “Explain the riddle to us,” he said.

¹⁶ “Are you still slow on the uptake as well?” replied Jesus. ¹⁷ “Don’t you understand that whatever goes into the mouth travels on into the stomach and goes out into the drain? ¹⁸ But what comes out of the mouth begins in the heart, and that’s what makes someone unclean. ¹⁹ Out of the heart, you see, come evil plots, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. ²⁰ These are the things that make someone unclean. But eating with unwashed hands doesn’t make a person unclean.”